This is intended to be a public place where help text labels can be added and modified. The ultimate goal here would be that first-time installs of OBS would start up in "Tutorial Help Text" mode, where nearly all the options/settings/buttons/whatever would have pop-up help text explaining what that option does and how to properly use it. Once a user is comfortable enough with OBS, they can simply disable this mode in Settings -> General.

The below lists all the fields (incomplete right now, but working on it) that would be good to have a help text for. Feel free to add anything you think is missing, or add the help text descriptions to anything that does not currently have one.

• File
  • Show Recordings
  • Remux Recordings
  • Settings
  • Show Settings Folder
  • Show Profile Folder
  • Always On Top
  • Exit
• Edit
  • Copy
  • Paste (Reference)
  • Paste (Duplicate)
  • Copy Filters
  • Paste Filters
  • Transform
  • Order
  • Preview Scaling
  • Lock Preview
  • Advanced Audio Properties
• View
  • Fullscreen Interface
  • Docks
  • Toolbars
  • Status Bar
  • Stats
  • Multiview (Fullscreen)
  • Multiview (Windowed)
• Profile
  • New
  • Duplicate
  • Rename
  • Remove
  • Import
  • Export
• Scene Collection
  • New
  • Duplicate
  • Rename
  • Remove
  • Import
  • Export
• Tools
  • Auto-Configuration Wizard (Beta)
  • Captions (Experimental)
  • Automatic Scene Switcher
  • Output Timer
  • Scripts
• Help
  • Help Portal
  • Visit Website
  • Join Discord Server
  • Log Files
  • Crash Reports
  • Check for Updates

• Scenes
  • Add
  • Remove
  • Move Up
  • Move Down
• Sources
  • Add
  • Remove
  • Properties
  • Move Up
  • Move Down
• Mixer
  • Volume Meter
  • Fader
  • Mute Button
• Scene Transitions
  • Add
  • Remove
  • Properties
  • Duration
• Controls
  • Start Streaming
  • Start Recording
  • Replay Buffer
  • Studio Mode
  • Settings
  • Exit

• Encoding overloaded
• LIVE Timer
• REC Timer
• Dropped Frames

• CPU Usage
• HDD space available
• Memory Usage
• FPS
• Average time to render frame
• Frames missed due to rendering lag: This is caused by your graphics card. Either it's not powerful enough for what you're trying to do, or another application is using all your resources. In most cases, this is caused by a game where the settings are too high, or the frame `rate isn't locked to 60fps.
• Skipped frames due to encoding lag: If you're using x264, this is caused by your CPU. You can try raising the OBS CPU Priority in Settings - Advanced, close other applications, use a faster encoding preset, or - if available - use a hardware encoder.

• Output
• Status
• Dropped Frames (Network)
• Total Data Output
• Bitrate

This will be used for 'descriptions' of the sources in a new Add window

• Audio Input Capture
  • Aliases: Microphone, Virtual Audio Cable
• Audio Output Capture
  • Aliases: ?
• Browser
  • Aliases: Alerts, Webpage, Web Overlay
• Color Source: Insert a coloured shape into your scene
• Display Capture
  • Aliases: Monitor Capture
• Game Capture
• Image
• Image Slide Show
• Media Source
  • Aliases: Video File Source
• NDI Source
• Scene
• Text (GDI+)
• VLC Video Source
• Video Capture Device
  • Aliases: Webcam, Capture Card
• Window Capture

• Stream Type: Change between the pre-defined services list, or a custom streaming URL. Anything entered to Custom Streaming Service must support RTMP ingest.
• Service: The streaming service you wish to use. If your service is not listed, try checking "Show all services" below.
• Server: The selected streaming server for your service, if multiple are available. Check with your service to determine how to choose the best one to use.
• Stream Key: A private key that is provided by the streaming service you are using. This is usually found in your account dashboard, and can be something as simple as a few characters or a long string of letters and numbers. Make sure to never show this value on your stream!

• Output Mode
  • Simple
    • Streaming
      • Video Bitrate
      • Encoder
      • Audio Bitrate
      • Enable Advanced Encoder Settings
      • Enforce streaming service bitrate limits
      • Encoder Preset
    • Recording
      • Recording Path: The folder where your recordings will be stored. This includes the Replay Buffer
      • Recording Quality
      • Recording Format
      • Encoder
      • Custom Muxer Settings
    • Replay Buffer
      • Maximum Replay Time (Seconds)
      • Maximum Memory (Megabytes)
      • Tooltip Message (they currently suck)
  • Advanced
    • Skip this cause advanced maybe?

• Sample Rate
• Channels: Select the channel format best suited to your recording and your stream. This defaults to Stereo and will automatically down-mix any surround sources. If you pick a surround setting here, be sure your streaming service of choice supports it.
• Desktop Audio Devices: Select your global desktop audio device sources. These will work across all scenes, and cannot be controlled on a per-scene basis.
• Mix/Auxiliary Audio Devices: Select your global microphone and auxiliary device sources. These will work across all scenes, and cannot be controlled on a per-scene basis.
• Enable Push-to-mute: The opposite of push-to-talk, this mode keeps the audio source playing ("open") unless your hotkey is pressed. Be sure to set key on the Hotkeys page.
• Audio Meter Decay Rate
• Peak Meter Type
• Enable Push-to-talk: The opposite of push-to-mute. This audio source will remain muted unless the hotkey is pressed. Be sure to set key on the Hotkeys page, otherwise this audio will never be recorded or streamed.

• Base (Canvas) Resolution: Similar to image editing software, your canvas is the primary screen where everything that will be recorded/streamed is displayed, allowing you to position and scale Sources as you see fit. This should either be the resolution of your primary display, or 1920x1080.
• Output (Scaled) Resolution: The end resolution of the recording or live stream. This does not affect the canvas size.
• Downscale Filter: If your output is smaller than the base canvas, this changes how it's downscaled. This can vary depending on the type of content you are producing.
  • Bilinear (Fastest, but blurry if scaled)
  • Bicubic (Sharpened scaling, 16 samples)
  • Lanczos (Sharpened scaling, 32 samples)
• Common FPS Values: The frame rate of your recording or stream. For recordings, this is best suited to your monitor's refresh rate (commonly 60). If you're streaming, it's usually better to keep this at 30. For non-standard framerates, which aren't recommended, use the dropdown on the left first.

• Start Streaming
• Stop Streaming
• Stop Streaming (discard delay)
• Start Recording
• Stop Recording
• Start Replay Buffer
• Stop Replay Buffer
• Studio Mode
• Transition
• Quick Transition: Cut
• Save Replay
• Show
• Hide
• Switch to scene
• Game Capture
  • Capture foreground window
  • Deactivate capture
• Audio devices and Sources with audio
  • Mute
  • Unmute
  • Push-to-mute
  • Push-to-talk
• Media Sources
  • Restart Media

I'm on the fence about these. On the one hand, users shouldn't be touching these. On the other hand, if we did better explaining what these options do, and warn users that changing them is a bad thing, we could cut down on the number of reported issues due to them doing stupid things here.

• General
  • Process Priority: Select a CPU priority level for the base OBS process. Raising this setting can positively affect OBS performance, but may lower performance of other CPU-hungry applications (such as games).
• Video
  • Renderer: Recommended default is 'Direct3D 11' on Windows. This can dramatically affect how the canvas is rendered.
  • Color Format: Recommended default is 'NV12'. This affects how colors are rendered in the preview and in outputs.
  • YUV Color Space: Recommended default is '601'. This affects how colors are rendered in the preview and in outputs.
  • YUV Color Range: Recommended default is 'Partial'. This affects how colors are rendered in the preview and in outputs.
• Audio
  • Audio Monitoring Device (why is this even in advanced? why does this not live on the Audio page?)
  • Disable Windows audio ducking: Windows automatically turns your speakers/headphones down when it detects your mic in use, to avoid echo. This turns that feature off.
• Recording
  • Filename Formatting (again, why is this even in advanced, this is basic functionality that users should have access to)
  • Overwrite if file exists
  • Replay Buffer Filename Prefix
  • Replay Buffer Filename Suffix
• Stream Delay
  • Duration: Restarting the stream is required for changes to take effect.
  • Preserve cutoff point (increase delay) when reconnecting
• Automatically Reconnect
  • Retry Delay
  • Maximum Retries
• Network
  • Bind to IP: Select a specific network adapter to use when connecting to streaming servers. Only useful if you have multiple internet connections / IP addresses.
  • Enable new networking code: Use an event based API for streaming rather than non-blocking sockets. Reportedly helps with frame drops and disconnections. (Also known as the New Socket Loop)
  • Low latency mode: Extending on the event based API, attempts to lower ping for other applications, like games, when streaming. Requires a more stable connection.
• Sources
  • Enable Browser Source Hardware Acceleration
• Hotkeys
  • Disable hotkeys when main window is in focus